The growing COVID-19 pandemic has turned all of our lives upside down. Each of us is affected, whether by social distancing, staff meetings via video chat, closed studios, or cancelled performances. Talking with Malcolm Shute, my former college dance professor at Towson University, helped me gain a sense of the possibilities for continuing to one’s creative work through this pandemic and beyond.
Malcolm Shute founded Human Landscape Dance, an internationally known dance company based in Washington, D.C., in 2006. He earned his MFA in dance and choreography from the University of Maryland College Park and is a certified movement analyst through the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies. Shute currently teaches multiple courses at Towson University, including a course on the evolution of vampires in film and dance composition.
Malcolm Shute, Human Landscape Dance, photo by Kanji Takeno
How did Human Landscape Dance begin?
When I went to grad school in 2003, I had been dancing with multiple companies in the D.C. area, but felt a strain of wanting to go in the direction of performing my own work. I focused on choreography in grad school. My heart was leading me to create in the off-campus community. Near the end grad school, I reached out to my very dear friend Alex Short to make work together. He and I have worked on Human Landscape ever since.
We call it Human Landscape because I’m very interested in the connections between people and the environments we live in, including other people. Most of my work is based on relationships and partnering; I look for connections -- what makes people part of their landscape, and, particularly, connections with people. It’s always been a playful process conducted among friends.
How are you and the Human Landscape dancers handling social distancing?
That’s the primary tension right now. I’m fortunate that Alex (Short) is still willing to dance with me. He and I are basically family, so I’m not worried that we would infect each other since we mostly socialize and dance with each other. I’m grateful that I’m still able to move with somebody because it’s my “bread and butter” and the fabric of my reality. I realize, as people separate [physically] more and more, I find myself going stir crazy. Why can’t I just go into the studio like I have every day for the last twenty years? It’s a huge challenge. Some dancers want to rehearse via Zoom, so I’m working on how we can create a coherent piece. It’s a Band-Aid on the problem of social distancing, but I don’t do social distancing! I social cling, smear, groove! It’s been a hell of a challenge; I haven’t quite figured it out yet.
The company had a performance at the Dance Loft on 14 scheduled for the weekend of April 18-19. What are the ramifications for postponing or cancelling? Are you taking a financial hit?
There have been financial losses. We hope to perform our D.C. and Baltimore shows in the future, but we won’t recoup everything even so. We’ve had to postpone our Japan tour for a year as well. A lot of work goes into presenting a show long before opening night, as you know. There are promotional materials that are now wasted, building support which has lost all momentum, and technicians and designers who may not be able to work a revised schedule.
But, most of all, the work itself suffers during these setbacks. Dances need to be polished and performed multiple times to meet their peak. Our work is built to the specific bodies of the dancers; after a certain point, it is not transferable. I’m afraid that some of our dances may never be performed. That said, it is better to lose dances than to lose lives. It still hurts, though.
Malcolm Shute with Alex Short, photo Nathan Harmon
What have you been doing to help occupy your time?
I’m video editing more now. I would rather spend this time making art and finding fulfillment rather than spinning my wheels. [The company members] are also tossing around the idea of an online concert. For not just Human Landscape, but for many groups. The idea is in the beginning stages, but it’s one I hope to pursue, particularly since I’ve lost several shows as a result of this [pandemic]. I know many of my friends have as well. We have this captive audience who are stuck at home, bored, and looking for something new and interesting to spend their time upon. I hope this necessity is going to generate some sort of invention or genre.
I’m fortunate enough to still have a job [at Towson University]. I’ve spent a lot of time working on teaching online. I’ve got a level three dance composition class about creating group choreography. Now, my students don’t have groups to work with. The impressions I’ve been hearing about from their isolation have inspired me to work harder to narrow the divide.
I’ve also been hanging around the family a lot. My 12-year-old daughter is really into ballet, so we’ll do a ballet barre together and, as you can imagine, that is something I haven’t done in a very long time!
What do you hope the dance world will acknowledge or change by the end of this pandemic?
A renewed sense of how lucky we are to get to do what we do. Our culture discourages connection: We look at screens all day, even before we were isolated socially. I feel that what we [dancers] do – communicating with each other in a room, performing cooperative relationships -- is such a gift! In some ways, I feel that it could be a solution for the world: “Make dance, not war.” I hope the pandemic serves as inspiration to create more work for the sheer pleasure and privilege of getting to do it. I hope we become more supportive of each other, having been separated. It makes me more appreciative of the support I’ve gotten over the years. I understand why we’re here. I just hope when we congregate again, we’ll return with a vengeance.